Vincent Lübeck
is an interesting figure in the development of the North German
organ tradition. He provides perhaps the most significant
late link from the stylus phantasticus, which had reached
is zenith with the compositions of Buxtehude and the larger
Praeludia of Bruhns, and the music of Bach. Lübeck’s Praeludia
place an extended emphasis on contrapuntal passages, whilst,
as Friedhelm Flamme perceptively notes in the booklet, the
melodic writing and free passages signify a foreshadowing
of the gallant. Several works may have been written by Lübeck’s
son, namely the partita on In Dulci Jubilo, and the
Praeambulae in F and G.

The organ Flamme
has selected to record seems to me to be a curious choice.
It was built by Christoph Treutmann in 1734-1737 and is the
only surviving instrument of the Magdeburg builder. Flamme
comments that its mix of Northern and Central German organ
building traditions suits the transitional nature of the music
well. I take his point, and the organ is undoubtedly very
colourful and of superb quality, but to my ear the sound is
too Thuringian to ideally suit Lübeck’s still very Northern
music. We are fortunate today that two organs in particular
survive with which Lübeck was personally associated. The first
is the Huß/Schnitger organ at the St Cosmae and Damiani in
Stade, where Lübeck himself was organist. The other is the
1721 Schnitger organ at the Grote of St Michaëlskerk in Zwolle,
built following a letter of recommendation from Lübeck to
the town authorities in Zwolle. The former instrument has
already been used in a complete survey of the organ works
of Lübeck by Martin Böcker, but the latter instrument has
been less recorded in recent times than in the period following
its restoration in the 1950s by Flentrop. The organ awaits
a mature restoration, but even so it remains immensely poetic
and monumental, and is the largest Schnitger organ to have
its original winding system intact.

It is precisely
the monumental quality of the Zwolle organ that I miss in
Flamme’s playing. Lübeck’s free works, despite their transitional
nature, confront the player with the same rigorous logic as
the free works of Buxtehude. Flamme plays too fast, and too
superficially to project the rigour and grandeur of the music.
Sometimes I can’t make any sense at all of the tempo relationships
between the time signatures. His over-complicated registration-plans
in almost all the pieces may reflect the variety of textures
in the writing, but don’t reflect the overall structure of
the compositions. Flamme plays with great control, and knows
instinctively how to make an optimal sound from a challenging
old organ, but for me this isn’t enough.

The interpretation
of the North German school of organ music is a thorny issue, and
my opinions reflect necessarily my own studies. This CD remains
essential listening for anyone who is unfamiliar with Vincent
Lübeck’s music. The highlight is perhaps the marvellous chorale
fantasia on Ich ruf zo dir, perhaps the last composition
of the genre and one of the crowning achievements of the North
German musica poetica.

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